I took my daughter today to Caphouse Colliery (National Coal Mining Museum) where we were given the note below along with our tickets.... I'm actually gutted for once to find this superb museum is facing significant budget cuts in its grants up to 30% over four years probably resulting in staff reductions, reduction of site and less activities . They are asking you write to your MP (and any one else you can think of I'd suggest) in support of the museum. Please if you've been or even if you havn't this is an amazingly good museum which beggars belief we could see it reduced or part closed. This was my 3rd trip (we have had wonderful times here as a family over the years). I was also told that Big Pit could be facing the same sort of cuts.... We live in a country that even if you forget what these places mean to the mining community needs to pull in tourists as part of its future and I fail to see how cutting national museums achieves this ... its happened before with the National railway Museum etc, which just resulted in low numbers and zero investment as budgets were cut and admission was charged. The place was packed by 12 today and there was alot to see and do marking this as one of our better UK mainstream museums, So please support them by writing as requested...

I don't know about other MPs but I know for a fact that our new Tory MP is exactly the same as the previous Labour one. Any reply to a letter is a 'toe-the-party-line-cos-I-am-incapable-of-having-an-opinion-of-my-own' letter. Good luck - maybe other MPs are worth the effort of writing a letter or email. I know mine isn't.

Perhaps in any letters to Tory MPs you could note that the new Head Boy, David Cameron, was only last week encouraging Britons to spend more holidays at home. Fundamental to re-building the economy it seems.

The prime minister wanted Britons to spend more on holidaying at home. "At the moment 36% of what Brits spend on holidays is spent at home," he said. "Can we up our game to raise that to 50%?"

That aside, am I right in thinking that a lot of the costs in keeping Caphouse open are to do with pumping and mine water treatment? Some interesting things turn up when you google it.

like so many things, this comes back to the need for a fundamental change of the system of governance.

all main parties have a system of central selection which is intended to ensure that only candidates supporting the 'central committee' agenda are selected, and can be deselected at central direction with or without the agreement of their constituency organisation.

the main parties are, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable in their main policies. The means of approaching them vary, but all parties are constrained by the need to produce a workable result from the electoral arithmetic without recognising or embracing the significant section of the electorate who do not support the 'Westminster consensus'

I effect, this means that none of the main parties can be expected to do anything genuinely controversial. There will much huffing and puffing, as they jockey for electoral advantage, but little real change.

the great sacred cows are political correctness, immigration and the EU. The immediate driving imperative is the financial deficit. The Coalition claim that their intention is to reduce the deficit by making cuts beyond anything demonstrably achievable, Labour's policies on this were unclear but could only have been based on inflating the debt away.

the actual result of this is to produce a period of posturing and bluster as trivial sums are saved by the attacking of peripheral, 'soft' targets while the real process rolls on unabated.

various quasi-private sector targets, such as the effective abandonment of capital investment and consequent collapse of the construction industry, are already under full attack. Front-line services have been under attack for some time - since so much of the actual service is contracted out at some level, it can be scaled back with no actual identifiable policy for doing so.

it's interesting that the police seem to be leading the counter-attack, by making plans for reduction of actual officers whilst preserving the politicised beaurocracies of which they now so largely consist. This is significant, because it provides a proxy arena for the trial of strength which is, to a point, a reflection of the 1984 miners' strike; the differences being that the employment sectors being defended are completely unproductive and essentially political and anti-democratic in character, and the government have already effectively signalled that they have no stomach for the fight.

the Conservatives have now broadened the arena by poaching a figure from the Labour right, so that sector of the contest is defined; the signal has been given that the contest for electoral dominance will be fought out within existing policies, that the consensus remains intact, electoral exclusion of elements with insufficient 'political consciousness' will remain, that it is fundamental that whichever party emerges successful will be 'on message'.

quite where this will lead, is hard to say, but the conclusion has to be that inflation will remain high and probably continue to increase ( fuelled by QE, or 'printing money' in plain English ); a complete economic collapse will probably be averted or avoided, and the client state so assiduously erected by Labour will effectively survive.

organisations like the NCM have no role in this, and will simply be squeezed to death or at best completely marginalised

Whilst I agree with your view of politics etc and get where you are coming from on the economy are we really saying that there is little or nothing that can be done to stop such cuts ... especially given the view that Tourism needs to become a bigger player in the country's so called economic re-birth (I cringed writing that last bit)

The Coalition have effectively funked the issue, by presenting the very beaurocracies they need to attack and abolish, with the task of making 'savings'.

Since turkeys don't usually vote for Xmas, the only course of action they can be expected to take is to axe the very services they supposedly provide; in effect, to take the view that the preservation of the beaurocracy is more important than the provision of the service.

I would also take the view that the idea that this country can in some way base its economic revival on tourism is complete bollix.

all main parties have a system of central selection which is intended to ensure that only candidates supporting the 'central committee' agenda are selected, and can be deselected at central direction with or without the agreement of their constituency organisation.

Though the Conservatives are the only party to try and make the selection procedure more open with some constituencies having meeting similar to American primaries rather than the conventional smoky back rooms.

With Labour you get priority and bypass quotas if you are the husband of an ex Cabinet Minister javascript:emoticon('')

all main parties have a system of central selection which is intended to ensure that only candidates supporting the 'central committee' agenda are selected, and can be deselected at central direction with or without the agreement of their constituency organisation.

Though the Conservatives are the only party to try and make the selection procedure more open with some constituencies having meeting similar to American primaries rather than the conventional smoky back rooms.

With Labour you get priority and bypass quotas if you are the husband of an ex Cabinet Minister javascript:emoticon('')

If you want to see how a major world economy functions, go and look at one. China maybe, or India?

this would be the same Conservative Party with centrally dictated quota for homosexual and female candidates? I really don't care what perversions MPs indulge in off-duty, as long as they have been selected for their ability; but selecting them for such criteria isn't governance, it's playing at it

ranting about polititians is no good as they are only worried about thier perks,why dont caphouse start charging to go underground to make up the shortfall....i would gladly pay as its well worth it as one of the few safe coal mines left you can go down without getting blown up/gassed/crushed,or charge for private parties to go down. or even better make the banks top up the shortfall as we are all suffering thanks to them.

hmmm.... I dunno ...I remember the last national round of museum charges based on everything must pay for itself... no one came as people oft resented paying to visit what in their minds they had already paid for....

museum charges didn't work when they were charged before, even as a means of excluding the local oiks so that more foreign tourists could be accomodated.

all the evidence is that tourism is self-limiting, that only so many can be accomodated before demand peaks, and the actual returns are definitely finite and seasonal. Anyone who lives in a tourist area knows about that.

would anyone from Cornwall care to comment on the actual extent to which tourism has replaced the mines, Holmans foundry and all the rest of it?

At the moment, Big Pit keeps me sane. I was made redundant in April, and have since been trying to get a new job with no luck. What I miss most is the interaction with other people - the Job Centre staff don't give damn whether or not I'm looking for work, I'm just another number.I take myself off to Big Pit at least once a month, it's nearer than Caphouse. I would gladly pay to go underground out of my meagre pittance because I love being with other people, and enjoy being underground. Keep the museums going, even if you have to charge. Once they've gone, they've gone forever. We cannot afford for that to happen. Successive governments have trashed enough of our heritage.

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Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground.
That's where I'm heading for that's where I'm bound
So follow me down Cousin Jack
(Grateful thanks to Show of Hands)
IP: 86.142.52.193

Mining museums having their funding cut by tories - been there, seen it, done it and got the bloody t - shirt!!!

Using tourism as the basis of any economic recovery is dodgy. Most jobs in the the tourist industry are low pay, low skill and seasonal with a high turnover of staff.

I recall reading the Westen Morning News a couple of years ago. On the front page was a banner headline announcing that Cornwall had had its best tourist season ever. A few pages in there was an article about how Cornwall as a region was one of the most economically deprived areas in the EU - nuff said.

Leaving the politics aside, the Country is in deep s**t after the last Government and we must accept cuts in all sorts of areas. If they are cutting funding to important areas like NHS then we cannot cry NIMBY about heritage sites. I expected this sort of thing to happen sooner or later.

Except that I doubt Big Pit and Caphouse have 25 lairs of government approved BS self perpetuating management teams and quango's in place with a ratio of managers to workers approaching the ridiculous levels seen in the NHS, MOD, Local Govt etcSo its not really the same at all.... just because our hospitals and other public services have been allowed a beaurocratic explosion in costs/expenditure does not mean that our museums are as wasteful and even if there is waste its never gonna be on the same scale... I have worked with some of these museum organisations and their costs are oft cut to the core or in the least fairly well managed in comparison to most public services.... they had to be after the last cuts 2 decades ago...

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We must perform a QuirkafleegIP: 78.149.109.189Edited: 22/08/2010 20:38:34 by ICLOK